As lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom supported a 2017 bill increasing the state's gas taxes. When running for governor in 2018, he opposed a ballot initiative that would have repealed that same increase. It's 2019, and Newson, now the state's governor, is demanding an investigation into why the state's gas prices are so high.
On Tuesday, the governor sent a letter to the California Energy Commission (CEC) asking that the state agency investigate the Golden State's roughly $4.03 per gallon gas prices, currently the highest in the country (and well above the national average of $2.86 per gallon).
"Independent analysis suggests that an unaccounted-for price differential exists in California's gas prices and that this price differential may stem in part from inappropriate industry practices," wrote Newsom in his letter to the CEC. "These are all important reasons for the Commission to help shed light on what's going on in our gasoline market."
[...] California currently imposes the second-highest gas taxes in the country. A state excise tax currently adds $.417 per gallon, a rate that will increase to $.473 come July. On top of that, the state imposes a 2.25 percent gasoline sales tax.
In addition, California has adopted a low-carbon fuel standard and a cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions which together increase the state's gas prices by $.24 per gallon above the national average, according to a 2017 state government report.
That same report maintained that, even after all these state-imposed costs were tallied up, California's gas prices remained above the national average, a finding that both those 19 state legislators and Newsom are using to justify their demands for an investigation.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Sunday April 28 2019, @01:34AM (10 children)
I opposed the tax hike and voted in favor of the repeal, but as the article/summary briefly mentions, it's an entirely separate issue from the industry charging a significantly higher base (pre-tax) rate per gallon.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by RandomFactor on Sunday April 28 2019, @01:47AM (6 children)
One has to wonder if there are other factors other than some sort of consistent greediness across the state. The cost of pretty much everything (land, gas station attendants, taxes, insurance) is going to be higher in California.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 5, Informative) by ilPapa on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:14AM (5 children)
The main factor in things costing more in California is that it's worth it.
And really, not everything is more expensive here. One of the most surprising things I learned since I moved here is that utilities are a LOT less expensive in CA than say, in Texas. And food. Food is substantially cheaper in California, and the quality is way higher. I can't say about highly-processed food, since we don't buy that, but meat, vegetables, dairy, eggs, poultry, fruit, etc are substantially less across the board.
Gas is way expensive, but I don't think the taxes are what's driving the recent spikes in price.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Sunday April 28 2019, @01:05PM (4 children)
> utilities are a LOT less expensive in CA than say, in Texas.
Do you know why that is? Collusion, and getting caught. CA used to suffer rolling blackouts all too largely and frequently. Turned out electricity providers were perfectly capable of providing all the electricity that was needed, but they weren't, in order to manipulate the market to gouge Californians. They'd cause a shortage to force the purchase of far more expensive electricity from out of state. One of the biggest villains in the manipulation was the infamous poster child of the Dot-Com Crash, Enron. They tried to blame inadequate infrastructure, unforeseen spikes in demand, maintenance needs, heat waves, regulations hindering the building of more power plants, the huge growth in server farms, anything and everything they could think of, to deflect attention from their schemes. Read up on the California electricity crisis.
Now CA is a bit more suspicious of mysterious price differences. Inexplicably high gasoline prices should be investigated.
As for Texas, I'd say electricity market manipulation is not dead, and Texas has been identified as a big sucker. Texans are accustomed to thinking of Texas as energy rich, and therefore immune from price spikes and gouging. This whole "Power To Choose" crap is a huge scam to try to gull the public into believing that the magic of "choice" keeps prices low. Not when there is no good choice, it doesn't. Electricity providers have taken to gaming the Power to Choose program by offering deliberately overcomplicated gimmicky plans that make it impossible to price shop. If you use 901 to 1000kWh per month, you may be paying 7 cents per kWh. But if you use 1001 to 1800 kWh, your rate may be 14 cents per kWh. Then the cost drops rapidly until at 2000 kWh, you're paying 9 cents, Above 2000, it jumps even higher, to 15 cents. They do that because the Power To Choose sorts plans at the usage points of 500, 1000, and 2000 kWh. I note also that electricity prices have generally increased across the board. Used to be plans that offered electricity at 5 to 7 cents per kWh. Now, 9 cents appears to be the low end.
Another factor they count on is fatigue. There's a perception that it takes mere moments to choose an electricity plan, you only have to do it a couple of times per year at most, and so it is no imposition at all, and people who don't bother are just lazy. No one wants to spend hours working through the complexities of a dozen or more plans and trying to figure what their energy use will be, to better guess which plan will be best. IF you do nothing when your plan ends, you are automatically continued with whatever provider you had, on their "month to month" program that is invariably far more expensive. To increase the fatigue, they will do the old come on, the very inexpensive plan that lasts only 3 months, after which you go month to month. They're counting on the consumer to be too busy to switch right away when the plan ends, counting on getting at least a month at their very high rates before the customer notices by being shocked and jolted over the next bill.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:11PM
Don't you just love business innovation? Different busniness, same bullshit across the board. Cell phone? 100 different "plans" that differ by 1%. Health insurance? 100 different plans. Electricity? I know... let's innovate! 100 plans. Too right it's fatiguing, everyone has to become an expert... sorry, an informed consumer... on everything. And don't get me started on tax forms. Sprawling mess full of exceptions and loopholes.
(Score: 3, Touché) by khallow on Monday April 29 2019, @12:46AM
And that's why CA's electricity prices are a mere [electricchoice.com] $0.20 per kWh averaged while Texas has soaring electricity prices of $0.11 per kWh.
Indeed. The suckers are paying almost 40% less for electricity due to all that manipulation.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Nobuddy on Monday April 29 2019, @01:19PM (1 child)
>CA used to suffer rolling blackouts all too largely and frequently
JESUS
FUCKING
CHRIST.
You ignorant buffoon, the goddamn rolling blackouts were done on purpose by enron to make it seem like the company was running beyond max capacity, which drove stock prices up. They weren't real. They were done on fucking purpose.
Goddamn you knuckle dragging idiots will latch on to the dumbest shit to try and validate your bankrupt half formed opinions.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday April 29 2019, @03:36PM
You obviously didn't read what I wrote. Stopped after the 1st sentence and flew off the handle.
Now sit down and take a few deep breaths, and pop a pill or two of something relaxing like Valium.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @12:06PM
tax per gallon = (price per gallon*1.1)-(3*0.9)
tax return to consumer per gallon = (price per gallon*1.1)-(3*0.9) - 0.6
╔═════════╦═════╦════════╦═════════╗
║ $gallon ║ tax ║ taxRet ║ $income ║
╠═════════╬═════╬════════╬═════════╣
║ 3 ║ 0.6 ║ 0 ║ 2.4 ║
╠═════════╬═════╬════════╬═════════╣
║ 4 ║ 1.7 ║ 1.1 ║ 2.3 ║
╠═════════╬═════╬════════╬═════════╣
║ 5 ║ 2.8 ║ 2.2 ║ 2.2 ║
╠═════════╬═════╬════════╬═════════╣
║ 6 ║ 3.9 ║ 3.3 ║ 2.1 ║
╚═════════╩═════╩════════╩═════════╝
Problem solved using the magical power of taxes and math :D
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:53PM
I'm sure it has nothing to do with California taxing and feeing everything. /sarcasm
(Score: 3, Interesting) by wisnoskij on Sunday April 28 2019, @10:30PM
That is because this is one of these most clear cut and extreme cases of recursive costs you will ever find.
Even just taken in isolation, assuming no other policies had any effect on the economy over the last few years in California, A Gas tax is not a flat addition.
Say we take $1 of gas, and want to add a tax of 10% to it.
Does gas now cost $1.1? No, because it costs gas to deliver gas to the stores, it costs gas create gas. Since every product, every industry, every person runs off of gas, the cost of every product and the cost of living increases across the board. The tax is then applied to this inflated gas cost. And then we reiterate over this price increase a second time. Repeat until the change approaches 0.
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday April 28 2019, @01:52AM (13 children)
Gasaline prices very high in High Tax High Crime California, big surprise. It's not a surprise, folks. I told them, vote for John Cocks and he'll REPEAL THE GAS TAX. So many "people" voted for him( THANK YOU ). But, California's Elections are HORRIBLY RIGGED. They have an Open Border with "people" coming in from South America, from Middle East. And these "people" are voting many times. Known as, Voter Fraud. They voted for Goofy Gavin. And now Crime & Taxes are going through the roof. Crazy!!!!
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @02:40AM (12 children)
I believe one has to be quite rich or quite poor to live here.
This is not a place for moderate income people.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:10AM (11 children)
For a bonus, notice in that list that the US itself has a Gini coefficient of income inequality higher than 46 states. That means that a good portion of the US's wealth inequality is between regions not people.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ilPapa on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:19AM (10 children)
California has a lower rate of income inequality than Louisiana. And inequality in Montana is growing faster than in California.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/us-states-with-the-highest-levels-of-income-inequality.html [cnbc.com]
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @11:50AM (1 child)
New York, home of SJW Ocrazio Cortes, is #1 by your own citation. It's also home to Bill, Ima drive my Escalade to the gym but you just run along to the subway DeBlasio as well as Andrew, let's soak the rich again - wait where is everyone going, Cuomo. California is #4 and Massachusettes is #6. So Montana, at #30, is growing faster than California? Wake me up when it's #5. And nice of you to cherry pick the one state, LA, at the top that just doesn't happen to be a bed of nanny state SJWism. I and obviously GP think it's not coincidence that the SJW states who demand equality of outcomes, not equality of opportunities are among the most unequal.
Why would you be concerned about gas prices anyway? You left coasties will be off the carbon crack in a year or so anyway. You'll all be in magical, self-driving, electric wondermobiles for the last 12 years before the world ends. Let us red states worry about gasoline prices.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @04:51PM
Bragging about Louisiana and Montana may involve great deals of sarcasm inequality.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @04:48PM (6 children)
So it must not be bad then, huh?
California is a very distant #2 in the country for the rate of growing inequality. And only #4 for overall inequality. It's wonderful seeing all these good intentions making the place better.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:35PM (5 children)
It's important to note that California also has the ninth highest median income (after a bunch of other blue states) while the highest poverty rates are all in red states that don't have the "SJW" problem.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/10-wealthiest-states-in-america?slide=3 [usnews.com]
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/slideshows/states-with-the-highest-poverty-rates-in-the-us?slide=11 [usnews.com]
So while there may well be high inequality (because we have so many millionaires here), the standard of living across the board is pretty darn high in Cali. So overall, people tend to do better in states where the SJWs are in charge. Who knew?
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @08:57PM (4 children)
[...]
Income != standard of living. Keep in mind that the story is about California having gas prices that are 40% above the norm for the US (which would increase the cost of many other goods as secondary effects). For example, we have this interpretation [external-preview.redd.it] of GDP per capita adjusted (here, scaled inversely) for cost of living. It has California in 29th place. But California does better than Montana (41st place) and worse than Louisiana (12th place).
And who knew that income inequality wasn't that important?
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Monday April 29 2019, @12:12AM (3 children)
Your evidence is an unsourced graph from Reddit?
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 29 2019, @12:51AM (2 children)
And are you claiming that if you do the same spreadsheet manipulation these guys did, you'll get a different answer? Reproducibility is a thing here.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Monday April 29 2019, @01:39AM (1 child)
Where is the spreadsheet? Where is the data? So far, all you've provided is an unsourced graph. A picture. You can make one of those in MS Paint.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday April 29 2019, @03:47AM
(Score: 3, Touché) by Reziac on Monday April 29 2019, @02:46AM
And the reason why it's growing so fast in Montana is because of all the trust-fund babies moving here from California, as they try to escape the economic and social situation they voted for.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @02:39AM (9 children)
CA requires special gas formulation to reduce smog, That means gas that could be sold in OK, AZ, etc. may not be legal for CA.
It's not the gas tax. If it was, CA would be alone in facing higher gas price.
Also, gas tax has not kept up with inflation, so it must be increased to keep up road maintenance, etc. Would you rather have spying gizmo to track your cars and truck instead?
The submitter AC is a moron.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bussdriver on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:42AM (5 children)
Gas taxes have been flat-lined because corrupt politicians never set them to inflation so the same fights can be recycled for attention every so many years while also shoving problems off into the future for others to deal with.
We have more roads and bridges than before and yet haven't paid the same upkeep price for half a century.
CA should look into cutting down how many roads they have to maintain... maybe after cutting out a bunch of highway people will beg for gas taxes to expand the roads... in other words, they shouldn't allow more roads than they can afford to support. Pass a law on that and start rotating dead lanes on the highway... pay the tax toll fee to unlock the road use. sure would be better than the stupid wasteful toll roads (which are usually managed for profit... while government is non-profit... if your government corruption wastes 20% you are still below many businesses' profit margins. )
(Score: 5, Interesting) by captain normal on Sunday April 28 2019, @04:57AM (3 children)
Article in the Mercury News a couple of months ago points out that it is not totally the taxes. There seems to be a mystery surcharge on gasoline sales. Maybe it goes into the pockets of the oil companies,but also as likely (as a friend of mine, who works as a political consultant, told me four years ago) that the money is going into a slush fund for RNC candidates. There is a big election coming up next year.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/29/a-20-cent-mystery-surcharge-on-gas-california-lawmakers-ask-ag-to-find-out-why/ [mercurynews.com]
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @12:07PM (2 children)
You people are insane. Here's the short of it. If you demand a special gasoline blend that has to be made just for you, it's going to cost more. It's fucking supply and demand. When you can't bring in supplies made for other states to help satisfy your demand on what is essentially a fungible product, it's going to cost more. It's simple economics. If you don't like it, buy the same shit the rest of us uses. Oil companies are all about maximizing profits and unless you find a way to increase supplies without adding costs to make your own special flavor, you're going to pay it.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @02:18PM (1 child)
No, gas prices are high because of Republicans are putting it in a secret slush fund! Same reason housing prices are high in Silicon Valley. Republican plots!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @10:13PM
Hinge free since '83!
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Sunday April 28 2019, @08:10PM
More roads? And there isn't an increasing population paying taxes as well?
CA: Buy electric cars, save the planet!
Also CA: OMG, you drive an electric car! That's gas tax evasion you thief!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @10:04AM
When you create a mandate that requires special fuel, you don't get to expect it to be sold at the same markup as commodity fuel. Commodity fuel's engineering, distribution, and capital costs are amortized over most of the rest of the country. Special California fuel has to be paid for entirely by Californians, and it's not just higher fixed (engineering, legal) costs, but higher marginal (actual refinery operation) costs too. The price of oil is the biggest single factor in gasoline prices, but it's also only about half the total cost.
If you compare California to Washington [usatoday.com], which is in the same geographical region and has just slightly lower taxes, but no special fuel mandate, California gas is about $0.20 per gallon more expensive, or about 6%. This is in the right ballpark for higher refining and capital costs, which normally contribute about 8% [gaspricesexplained.com] to the total cost of gasoline.
The geographic region is important because the west coast is not well-connected by pipeline to the rest of the country. Most west coast fuel has to be refined locally. So comparing California to, say, Pennsylvania is inappropriate. [pipeline101.org]
Now, that state by state comparison was written in January. California fuel prices have increased since then. But, also, there are straightforward technical reasons for this [bloomberg.com].
Want another example? Look at diesel fuel used by commercial vehicles. California does not, to my knowledge, have special diesel fuel.
Not everyone knows this, but commercial vehicles pay fuel taxes based on where they operate, not where they buy fuel. This is one of the reasons they are required to keep travel logs. When refineries are not disrupted, California pre-tax diesel prices are almost identical [rigbooks.com] to those in adjacent Nevada.
But nobody wants to admit their own mistakes and self-inflicted problems when instead they can blame a "vast right-wing conspiracy" or whatever the current catchphrase is.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @07:03PM
CA Gas taxes have been raided to pay for other programs.
So raise the gas (road) tax and the legislature will spend it elsewhere.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2015/06/02/roadshow-how-much-gas-tax-money-goes-to-california-roads/ [mercurynews.com]
(Score: 2) by Nobuddy on Monday April 29 2019, @01:30PM
That special formulation accounts for 8 cents. we are talking 50 cents to a dollar a gallon more unaccounted for.
As the article, and governor, are saying- all factors considered, there is still a huge gap from the national average. They want to know why.
My theory- remember all the hullabaloo around the latest carbon tax on gas in CA? All the veiled threats and 'you'll be sorry' from the oil companies? Yea. They are overcharging in retaliation. That is my prediction of what this investigation will find.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @02:47AM (8 children)
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @02:55AM (2 children)
Or they could repeal the tax and anti-smog gas formulations and have no money for road maintenance, a constant smog cloud fogging LA, and in 12 months the market will climb back to the high prices for areas that are rich enough to ignore pricing. Meanwhile the roads fall apart worse than they already do, smog/polluted air kills a few extra city dwellers, and poor people still can’t afford to drive.
Awesome stuff. Where do I sign up?
(Score: 0, Troll) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:03AM
Unless, of course, that doesn't happen. For example, they could significantly roll back gas tax and still have enough to fund road maintenance, but that would require someone to root out the corruption and inefficiency a bit. They could use anti-smog gas formulations used in other states. And they could allow for additional businesses to start up refineries and import gas to keep said market from climbing back to those high prices.
Not saying that would happen, of course. But it's not an insurmountable problem should they ever want to clean that mess up.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Snotnose on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:30AM
Or they could take the money they siphoned from the gas tax to the general fund, and put it back to road maintenance.
Remember, a year before they started screaming "We need moar money for roads!" they transferred half the road money into the general fund.
Ask me again why I don't trust these fuckwits.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bussdriver on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:30AM (4 children)
How stupid can people be? I understand Republicans fail at math but there are so many other people bitching about a tiny gas tax when the OIL companies raise prices by many times the tax. You NEED taxes to give you safe roads / bridges to drive on. You decided the FAIR way to do this is to tax on gas consumption since it generally equates to road usage. That needs to be fixed at a rate to sustain the roads; you can debate about other methods of fair collection but to eliminate it just because right now you irrationally are grasping at savings the OIL industry can easily take away from you at a whim is unbelievably FOOLISH.
Do you even realize that other countries pay far higher prices? When gas hits $8 that 40 cents is going to look even smaller... but you'll have eliminated it by then and then be upset at the politicians for not fixing the collapsing bridges when you punish any of them who can think ahead further into the future.
If you cut some costs, fine... if you must but you leave the road tax alone! You need the roads. Your fake SUV won't last long driving off road, or save you when your bridge collapses. Easily, it will cost less per gallon to maintain the road than maintain the SUV.
CA various regulations on gas raise prices a bit indirectly but I doubt that is the real reason it costs so much more, as they are saying-- their added rules in addition to the taxes does not add up to the price difference. It's simple supply and demand economics. They can afford to screw CA who can afford to pay more (and need it more, it's got to be one of the worst states to get around in without a car despite the high population.)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by khallow on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:37AM (2 children)
Ask yourself why so many other states don't have these problems.
Sure, they even had rioting in France because of those higher prices. And I assure you, the stupid tax doesn't go to roads.
I think regulation and the resulting breaking of markets is the main portion of the cost differential.
I agree. But with the observation that California regulations screwed up supply for decades.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @08:31AM
Wait! Was the question how stupid people can be, or how stupid khallow can be? Seems there may be orders of magnitude involved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @09:36AM
So many possible causes, I prefer to wait for the result of investigation.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @12:27PM
You, I assume a Democrat, seem to fail at math, economics, cost accounting and finance. Perhaps you should go back to school instead of screaming at the sky over things you clearly do not understand or blaming the bad ole Republican Boogieman. Here's a little tip for you: accounting and finance involves a lot of math and requires you to be capable of more than counting on your fingers. You may be overwhelmed.
(Score: 4, Informative) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:33AM
I didn't understand anything at all about gas blends -- this certainly doesn't provide in depth knowledge, but it does help make the issue a little more understandable: https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a3180/summer-blend-vs-winter-blend-gasoline-whats-the-difference-13747431/ [popularmechanics.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Corelli's A on Sunday April 28 2019, @04:01AM (2 children)
Perhaps it's already accounted for (what?! I didn't RTFA!) but I'd like to remind folks that gas stations are usually a completely cash-flow business. One consequence is that local real-estate valuations, as rent, translate directly into gas prices.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:03AM (1 child)
Its repubkicans using it gor dlush funfs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @09:05AM
When clearly they should be using it for public education.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @07:01AM (1 child)
Down Under we pay a 'fuel excise [ato.gov.au]' at the browser when buying fuel which is meant to be to fund national road infrastructure projects and repair roads [wikipedia.org] but really most of it goes into a big bucket the government uses for anything it likes.
So it boils my blood to see toll roads being built and operated by private companies. On the grounds that it would cost too much for the government to do it. Complete and utter rot. The government could build any road they want using the slush fund from the petrol tax oh sorry EXCISE but they don't. Is this evil? To collect a tax for something then not actually do it?
Companies sold off by the government fall into the same boat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:22PM
But at least you are properly worshipping your military now. In just a few short years you'll have evangelicals and the transformation will be complete.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @03:22PM (1 child)
Why does this summary, and the article I presume, have such bias?
$4.03 - $0.417 = $3.613
This is still decisively higher than the national average of $2.86, and is at least worth in inquiry. It could be a benign unavoidable thing, it could be an innocent thing which can be fixed ("hey, our pipeline keeps breaking, maybe we should upgrade it"), or it could be a conspiracy. If a company noticed they were paying $20% more for computers than their competitors, I'd think they'd investigate it as well.
The article makes it sound like, "duh, we sold our TV, and now we can't watch TV anymore, what happened?" I imagine it is spun this way by a right-wing anti-tax anti-regulation group who think industry should be allowed to do anything they want.
Oh, reason.com: "free minds and free markets". Right. Well, at least they were honest enough to provide real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @07:22PM
Have you ever been to the richer parts of California, like San Mateo, Palo Alto, etc? Gas prices are ridiculous there.
These people have made so much money by spying on everyone that they cannot be bothered to cross the street for a 50 cent/gallon discount on gas. That is what I saw there. One corner, with the station closer to the highway 50 cents/gallon ($5-10 per tank) higher than across the street for the exact same thing.
I love the posts here positing a republican/corporate conspiracy to explain basic supply and demand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @05:21PM
Traffic is lighter when gas is high. Keep it up!
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:18PM
I recently had to tank, and here's a price comparison:
half tank of bensin 95 = 25 l
estimated price (I didn't keep the receipt) SEK 16.50 / l (out in the howling wasteland north of Stockholm ;-) )
brings total price to 16.50 * 25 = 412.5 kronor sounds about what it was.
Translation to American units:
1 US gallon [wikipedia.org] = 3.785411784 l
so half a tank, 25 l, = 6.604 gallon
Current forex at "forex bank" 1 USD = 10,2606 SEK [forex.se]
412.5 SEK / 10.2606 = 40.20 US$ sounds like the $ is almost on par with the € nowadays.
40.20 $ / 6.604 gallon = 6.088 $/gallon (rounded up)
Now according to ekonomifakta.se, the current tax on bensin is 64% [ekonomifakta.se]
6.088 $/gallon * 0.64 = 3.896 $/gallon tax, and 2.192 $/gallon actual price for the stuff.
The tax is almost double the price of the actual gasoline, in Sweden.
IOW the *tax* on gasoline in Sweden is 96.7% of the *total price* of gasoline in California, 4.03 $/gallon, that they complain about. Swedes in the middle of nowhere pay 50% more for gasoline than Californians.
This tax is for:
a combination of CO2-tax, energy tax and (25%) VAT.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Sunday April 28 2019, @06:29PM (3 children)
The reasons for the high prices are simple:
1. California uses a specially formulated gasoline that help with air pollution.
2. There are currently some refinery problems that are causing shortages.
3. The state gas tax is high.
4. Trump's policy's toward Venezuela and Iran which are taking these countries' oil off the market are causing oil prices to rise world wide.
Have I forgotten anything?
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 28 2019, @07:25PM
Yes, there are parts of California where people do not care what they pay for gas:
https://soylentnews.org/politics/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=31300&commentsort=0&mode=threadtos&threshold=-1&highlightthresh=-1&page=1&cid=836017#commentwrap [soylentnews.org]
Anyone who knows how averages works knows what outliers do to them...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 29 2019, @12:13AM
Covered most, except one:
It's the time when they switch from winter fuel formulation to summer fuel formulation. This shit happens twice a year, every year,
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday April 29 2019, @04:57AM
5. The west coast oil refineries are making record margins/profits again.
I'm further north. The transit tax went up a penny a litre in the next town, here the gas price shot up 12 cents a litre on that day and then another dime a few days later. next door they have a 17 cent a litre transit tax and gas varies between 3 and ten cents a litre more. Current price here, every gas station, $1.59 a litre, next town, $1.72 in the morning and $1.62 in the evening. All funds in Canadian.